No obligation to be optimal // Goals, unconditionals, constraints // Personalized idea selection and strategy

December 30, 2021 · writing

I was chatting yesterday with a founder who knew that phone sales worked for his business. But he also hated them, and forcing himself through it was ripping the joy from his day and undermining his excitement for the whole enterprise.

He was asking how to get through it. But that’s not the right question, because it’s sitting atop the implicit belief that just because phone sales are optimal, he must do them.

This isn’t true. We’re allowed to be suboptimal.

The founder in question loved teaching. His eyes lit up at the idea of filling a pipeline with educational events instead of cold calls. But he felt like he couldn’t, or shouldn’t, because it would be slower. Maybe running educational events won’t be as “optimal” as cranking out the cold calls. But he’s building this business for himself, not for anybody else. So why build it into something that he hates? Yes, it still needs to be profitable enough and big enough to fit his needs and ambitions. But it doesn’t need to be maximally big, nor maximally profitable.

Three pieces to consider when applying this to your own situation:

1. What you’re optimizing for (e.g., scale, fame, freedom, odds of success, craft, lifestyle, etc.)
2. Unconditionals (“I always, I never, I won’t”)
3. Constraints (“I must, I have to”)

All three are personal. But most advice tends to assume that you’re optimizing for scale, unburdened by constraints and unconditionals. Hence the typical guidance of: go fast, stay focused, get big, and do whatever is necessary along the way.

But in my current biz, we’re optimizing for purposeful work, with unconditionals against crazy urgency and long hours, and are constrained only by needing to reach $20k / month relatively soon. So we’re happily ignoring quite a lot of “best practice” and doing things at our own pace. Not because the “best practice” wouldn’t work, but because it would take us somewhere different from where we want to go.

For example, we could definitely move faster (and attack some bigger opportunities) if we had some funding. But funding tends to push you into big, winner-take-all markets, which forces you to go faster, which increases the hours and urgency, which violates our unconditionals. So bootstrapping it is. 

Similarly, we could make a lot more money by selling expensive cohort-based courses, like so many others in our industry. But doing so would undermine our pride and satisfaction in the work, which is the whole point. And since we can easily achieve our $20k / month constraint without having to go premium (e.g., 500 members at $40 / month would be fine). So we’re happy to leave that money on the table.

This three-part model (i.e., goal, unconditionals, constraints) is helpful even while optimizing for scale or profits. 

For example, maybe one of your unconditionals is to always over-deliver for every single customer. Well, that actually informs your market selection and pricing model, because it’s hard to over-deliver and delight while competing on cost. (If you don’t believe me, just ask the budget airlines.) 

Or maybe one of your constraints is that you need to be profitable within six months or go back to your old job. In that case, you probably want to pick something without lengthy or expensive product development, and which you can charge for immediately (without relying on network effects, reaching scale, or any other fanciness). Which means you probably want customers who will pay up-front and quickly, which probably means targeting either small businesses or individual professionals and solving a problem that they already know about and understand.

The best path isn’t what makes for the biggest number at the bottom-right of the spreadsheet. The best path is the one that best aligns with your goals, constraints, and unconditionals. This is true for both idea selection and the smaller, day-to-day decisions along the way. “Optimal” is an illusion. 

Because the last thing you want is to get five years down the road only to realize that you’ve been chasing someone else’s dream.

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